"On the shore of Lake Tal-y-llyn beneath Cadair Idris in southern Snowdonia, this peaceful stone-built house has lake views from every window. 'Wonderful: our visit is an annual highlight,' says a regular correspondent. This house is run in a personal style by owners, John, 'a welcoming and chatty host' and Ricky, who cooks the 'very good' evening meals. There is good walking, mountain biking and fishing."

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They say the world is getting smaller by the day and now a little book of poems carried by one of our foriegn guests has proved just that!

Every Sunday, for the last 30 years, Katrien Marcelis-Hanssens of Brussels, has visited her grandmother who shares with her cuttings taken from newspapers relating to Kirsten’s great love of the United Kingdom … and Wales in particular. A few weeks ago Kirsten’s granny showed her a glowing article about us and on the strength of that she and her husband, Johan, decided to come and stay. Arriving at The Old Rectory on the lake Kirsten looked at our website’s blog and saw that Belgium writer, Bart Plouvier, had been a recent guest and was pictured at the top of Cader Idris. (See below). She mentioned this to her husband who then pulled a book of Bart’s poems that he had brought for holiday reading out of his rucksack. “It really was an amazing co-incidence,” said Katrien who works as a banker. Her husband just could not believe this either. “I have always been an admirer of Bart Plouvier’s written work. There is something mystical about his poems and I think they really capture the melancholic feelings of the mountains – something that is so evocative of this part of Wales,” said Johan. The young couple decided that as Bart and his partner had conquered Cader Idris so should they, so on a beautiful autumnal morning they set off from The Old Rectory on the lake and two and half hours later were at the summit. Like many of our guests they got their camera out to prove that they had reached the top and Katrien took a picture of her husband, appropriately enough, reading one of Bart’s poems. The Marcelis – Hanssens have now emailed these images to him to prove that Bart’s poems have really now really reached new heights!